Remains of Ancient Palace Discovered

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Hidden beneath an ancient palace in what is now central Sudan,
archaeologists have discovered the oldest building in the city of
Meroë, a structure that also may have housed royalty.

The capital of a vast empire that flourished around 2,000 years
ago, Meroë was centered on the Nile River. At its height, the
city was controlled by a dynasty of kings who ruled about 900
miles (1,500 kilometers) of territory that stretched from
southern Egypt to areas south of modern-day Khartoum.

"In the region of central Sudan, we have an interesting research
problem," said team leader Krzysztof Grzymski, a curator at the
Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.

"We are acquainted with the prehistory cultures, from Stone Age
all the way through Neolithic, let's say until about 3000 (or)
2500 B.C." But after that "we have nothing, then out of the blue
in 800 B.C., we have Meroë culture," Grzymski told LiveScience.

In addition to filling this gap, the presence of such an ancient
building at Meroë suggests that an earlytemple dedicated to Amun,
a highly regarded Egyptian god, may have existed as well.
Archaeologists have speculated on its existence but have never
actually found it.

By unearthing the oldest known building at Meroë and searching
for even older examples, Grzymski is hoping to fill this gap.

"I'm looking for the origins of this Kushite, Nubian
civilization," he said.

So far, the team has excavated a small section of the building,
with radiocarbon dating indicating that it dates to about 900
B.C. The finds so far include a sizable mudbrick wall, pottery,
and most notably, a cache of animal bones, most of which belonged
to cattle.

"The most common animal kept in the Middle East now is goat and
sheep," Grzymskisaid. "This makes me think if you try to envision
this ancient civilization that to some extent they were
seminomadic pastoralists." In other words, they relied heavily on
beef and animal products in addition to agriculture.

Many of his finds were never published, and over the past two
decades, archaeologists have been going over Garstang's notes,
publishing them and looking for clues as to Meroë’s origins.

"Architectural elements from what may have been an early Amun
temple dating back to at least the seventh century were found
during Garstang's excavations in areas later occupied by the
Meroitic Royal City," writes David Edwards, of the University of
Leicester, in his book "The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of Sudan"
(Routledge, 2004).

Amun was an Egyptian god that the people of Meroë held in high
regard.

If the temple exists, Grzymski said it would be the oldest temple
in the city, a find that would offer clues to the religion of the
civilization's first people. His team tried to find the structure
using magnetometry, a technique that can detect archaeological
remains by searching for anomalies in the magnetic field. The
attempt was unsuccessful so in January 2012, they plan to launch
a major dig to search for it. "The only way to search for this
early Amun temple will be by excavating," said Grzymski.